Justin Geiger's home run in the sixth inning carried the Chestnut Hill College baseball team to a 3-2 win in the opening gamer of their doubleheader against the university of Bridgeport Monday afternoon at Hostelley Field.
Bridgeport came back to take a 6-3 win in game two, giving the Griffins a split of their two-game season series.
The Griffins fall to 7-15 overall and 1-4 in Central Atlantic Collegiate conference games. The Purple knights improve to 2-3 in league play and 4-17 overall.
Chestnut Hill recorded five hits in the opener, three of them for extra bases, doubles by
Aiden Myers and
Michael Pascoe and Geiger's game-winning home run.
Brendan Long started for the Griffins, pitching 5.1 innings and allowing two runs (one earned) while striking out six.
Marlon Rose closed out the game with 1.2 innings work to earn his second win of the season.
Myers doubled with nobody out in the Griffins' first at-bat, scoring
R.J. Huth who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and advanced to third via a failed pickoff attempt and a wild pitch. Pascoe then hit a hard grounder in the hole at shortstop beating a low throw and allowing Myers to score before getting thrown out trying to extend the hit to two bases.
Staked to a 2-0 lead, Long held the Purple Knights in check until the sixth inning, when Bridgeport rallied to tie the score, taking advantage of a throwing error from Long and allowing Anthony Pascale to single in two runs two batters later to make the score 2-2.
Geiger came to the plate with two out in the sixth and took an 0-1 pitch from Tim Dolan over the left center field fence for the eventual winning run. Rose loaded the bases in the top half of the seventh before getting UB's Jake Woods to foul out to third base to end of the game.
Dolan took the loss for the Purple Knights.
Pascoe started and pitched just 3.1 innings in game two, allowing five UB runs on seven hits and earned the loss The freshman star, who has earned CACC Rookie of the Week honors four times this season also had his on-base streak broken at 21 games. The 21-game streak is tied for the sixth longest in program history. Alec Craig holds the school record for the longest streak, reaching base in 51 straights starting at the end of the 2017 season and continuing through the entire 2018 campaign.
Huth and
Phoenix Bowman hit home runs in the Griffins' comeback attempt which fell short.
A three-run home run from UB's Jeremy Rodrigues staked the Purple Knights to a 3-0 lead. Bridgeport added two more early in the fourth inning, chasing Pascoe from the mound with a 5-0 deficit.
Bowman led off the fifth inning with his first home run of the season, clearing the left field fence to make the score 5-1. Three batters later Huth blasted a two-run home run to centerfield to pull the griffins within two, 5-3.
Rodrigues hit his second home run of the game in the seventh to push UB's lead back to three 6-3. The Griffins went down in order in their final at-bat, giving the team a split of the doubleheader.
The baseball team returns to action tomorrow, March 26, 2024, with a doubleheader at Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut. First Pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.
